Alan Van Dine has frequently written for newspapers and magazines and is the author of eight prior books, as various as are the subjects of his illustrations in this one.

His first was a children’s book in verse called Can You Imagine? Next came a volume on unusual architecture – haunted houses, birds’ nests, Beowulf’s mead house, Shakespeare’s Globe theater – titled Unconventional Builders, originally published by Doubleday and later expanded in new editions by Black Dog & Leventhal, then Barnes & Noble.

Others include a satire on advertising; a case study in documentary photography; a volume of prose and verse in portfolio form called Moth Meats, designed by the late Rick Horton; and, most recently a book of his light verse and illustrations issued by Towers Maguire under the title, If instead of apes we had come from grapes, we wouldn’t just yet be wine.

Fateful Encounters is different. It’s a book of few words, leaving the author’s illustrations to carry the narratives wherever they lead.